Walkthrough:49. The Mother of All Wars
Do you remember all those missions that our 450 pound friend who can bearly walk Richard Jordan (Another mission with him?) has helped you against The Caliph? And remember the time that Pigroach Phill helped you against the Arabian Lords? Remember all those times you have had to face the Caliph previously? Even somehow multiplying so you can face like 3 caliphs? Also remember the time that The Pig helped you against 2 Richards and 2 Snakes? Lastly Remember that time that Richard helped you against 3 Pigs? Yeah well this mission is an anomaly, this is the ONLY time the Caliph will help you in this Trail. Ibuki is still my favorite SF character btw. Ok now let's get serious. Actually before I start let me state the importance that this is indeed the Mother Of All Wars, every single one before and after. This means that this mission gave birth to The Big One (I hate that mission so bad). Ok now to start. This mission is a mixture of good and bad honestly. Let's start with the bad. Obviously the biggest is that you start off with a massive 37000 gold disadvantage. Also let us remember that Richard has a strong attack power and here he is protected by 2 Pigroaches. If you take a good amount of time this mission can get ugly... fast... Now for the good. PLENTY OF RESOURCES! For the initial defenses I recommend, sell the starting iron and pitch, Build 2 spread (that can shoot between them) towers of either round or square, then buy 15 Crossbowmen for each tower. 2 Balistae for the onslaught of Wendy's Chilli Catapults Richard will send at you because they will hurt. I also like to place 3 Fire Balistae, one in the center and 1 near each tower. This will be good for the early game and will help defend later on (more on this later). Now... WORK ON YOUR ECONOMY! I used the pause glitch with apples but you can also use Stone and Iron, alongside ale and really whatever you want but pitch. The resources are plentiful. Caliph will hold his own initially, but though my testing he does lose 1 on 1 against DSP and Wings (AKA Pig and Lionheart) and their massive E-Begging armies, and here he is castle to castle battling Pig while surviving Richard. Sultan will need help far sooner. What I like to do is use my Economy power and get an army of horse archers, with the defense I specified (shown in video) you should have space for around 200 in your army before it gets full. When I get around 72 I like to send them to help alleviate Sultan of pressure and destroy Catapults (do not directly engage with the Pig near him yet). Help Caliph if you want too, not required at this point. Your Economy should be making good numbers by this point so just keep boosting the Horse Archer numbers. The Richard under you will be attacking you while both pigs and Lionhearts will be attacking the ally right above them. Start sending the Horse Archers to thwart his second attack, Use them for defense and combined with the defense I stated previously this should ward even his future attacks. You do not HAVE to save the Sultan (or Caliph for that matter) but that would make you a baaaaaad person... and you would make Ibuki injure her hamstring somehow... Just save your allies please. By now you should have a respectable amount of Horse Archers with your economy backing them. I would not recommend either fear factor. Positive will slow down your economy that you need so badly while negative will make your troops die easier (which isn't desirable especially when fighting the positive using Richard Jordan). Instead the economy should be thriving enough so that the horse archers that die can be simply replaced. When you have around 150-175 start attacking the pig near the Sultan. Clear his towers (but do not get close to any Richard yet because his MAN, not Woman, MANgonels will thin your Horse Archer numbers easily.) When this pig is cleared a bit send your Horse Archers to do similar to the Caliph's Pig. Since the Caliph is actually fighting back he should have MUCH less (but still more) gold than mr. NO YOU WILL NOT COMMAND ME AS YOUR SERVANT ally. This will alleviate him quite a bit. Remember also use your Horse Archers as defense for when Wings under you sends his troops to beat you with a pistol grip on the kneecap (that one never gets old). Try to fund Caliph if possible. I swear when he asks for supplies it sounds like "Ernie's Goods" not "I need goods". Anyways with a little help DSP should run out of good due to nobody donating to his streams because he is such a scammer, Project 7 Anyone?, and Caliph should have a bit of gold to continue on with. You will start having "maximum size" issues, but just invest in Horse Archers. The Sultan's Pig will probably recover fast from being cleared so have your Horse Archers clear him again. Remember if any dies just buy more with your economy. If you can't afford to replace them increase resource intake. Clear the Pig and Sultan will probably be dealing with his own Richard Jordan attack too so have your Archers clear that. What I did is I cleared that pig and then ordered Sultan to attack him, however my Samuel McGravy Wingo under me attacked so I had to use my Horse Archers help defend AND clear a path for the Sultan's attack. it was a little dangerous but it worked and Sultan killed Pig. Now with Pig dead you will gain a little wiggle room and gain a big higher of a maximum army size. Now, assuming you supported Caliph a bit killing Pig to the left will alleviate pressure from him. Now remember you might have to do some defending because this late in the game each Richard's attacks will be rather big with lotsa siege equipment. If Caliph asks for help HELP HIM, he an come in handy. Now here is the thing. There are 3 Richards... while their natural defenses suck they will be full of Swordsmen/Pikemen and have tons of gold. I recommend starting with a corner Richard, he will replenish for a long while so I recommend destroying his wells and setting his castle on fire... and he will probably still have more money. Have your Melee troops of choice destroy his Stone Barracks and keep it destroyed so he can't do more soldiers. Have his castle burn to get rid of his ground castle defenders then go in. You have to do this three times and it could take a while.